[in signature style, this may be a duplicate post. if so, sorry .]
Is there any particular reason why the XHTML DTDs don't allow the
%attrs entity on the HTML element? The HEAD?
In particular, it is natural and sensible to set certain inherited
style properties on the document root, just as it is to set i18n
attributes there. It is possible to select the HTML element in CSS
(with mixed but improving results in deployed UAs), but unless the
style attribute is permitted on the HTML element, a weird asymmetry
between style and document languages ensues.